Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Martin Luther King Commemorative Map Featuring Selma Available from Ball State University Libraries


Map of the Month:  Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Map

The new movie “Selma” debuts on Friday just ahead of the January 19 Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday.  Each month the Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) displays a special map as the “Map of the Month,” and the map for this month is Journey of a King: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior.

The GRMC created the map in 2012 to celebrate the national holiday.  The map (above, click to enlarge) depicts some of the places the civil rights leader visited during his lifetime.  The map is based on locations in the book MLK: Journey of a King by Tonya Bolden available from the General Collection in Bracken Library.

The map features photographs from the book and a timeline of important events in the life of Dr. Marin Luther King, Jr.  The map covers King’s travels around the United States as he worked for civil rights, but he also visited Africa, the Holy Land, and Oslo, Norway for his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

The map includes many little-known facts like Dr. King was named Michael when he was born in Atlanta in 1929, but his father changed both of their names after the family traveled to Germany in 1934 in honor of the German reformer, Martin Luther.  And Dr. King was stabbed by a woman during his book tour in New York in 1958.

The map is currently being displayed in the front windows of the GRMC on the second floor of Bracken Library. 

A PDF-format version of the map is available from the Ball State University Libraries’ Cardinal Scholar and can be used for classroom lessons and presentations or personal interest.  The GRMC has a large-format plotter available for members of the Ball State University community for printing large maps.

Please contact the GRMC Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 5:00 at 765-285-1097 for more information about this map and other maps for exhibits and classroom lessons.

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